Co-operative Group conducts pension review to prepare for auto-enrolment

The Co-operative Group has conducted a review of its retirement benefits to ensure it is prepared for its auto-enrolment staging date in January 2013.

The group, which has more than 100,000 employees, will enrol its 40,000 employees who do not currently contribute to a workplace pension scheme in a defined contribution (DC) scheme.

Its defined benefit (DB) scheme, which is open to new entrants following two years’ service with the organisation, is a career-average scheme.

Gary Dewin, director of pensions at Co-operative Group, said: “Our pensions review was driven by a number of factors.

“These included offering more choice to employees, a desire to make benefits fairer for all in line with our values and principles, as well as making them appropriate for employees in different situations.

“As a responsible employer, we want to encourage all our employees to save for their retirement.

“We believe these changes will enable us to provide pensions that will be both affordable to our employees and appropriate. From January 2013, the group has to automatically enrol around 40,000 employees into a pension arrangement.

“We needed to take action now to be able to continue to offer good pensions for all our employees in the future.”